How to End Your Negative Karma

Posted on April 14, 2011

Is there a better option to psychology? Are there alternatives to psychiatry and taking pills? The following explores how you can not only feel better for a while but free yourself of the very roots of suffering, of repeating the patterns of negative karma.

~ Ann (not her real name) was a dental hygienist out of work. No matter how hard she tried, she could not find employment in her profession. So she worked for several months as a topless dancer. The money was good, much better in fact than working at a dentist’s office. But when she came to see me two years later she was miserable, anxious and deeply ashamed and disgusted with herself.

She was haunted by thoughts that she was bad, that she could not trust her own choices, that there was something deeply wrong with her, that she didn’t deserve to be happy. She felt dirty and deeply uncomfortable with herself. She called herself a ‘loose women,’ a prostitute. She was clinically depressed and it was difficult for her to function in her daily life.

When she began to clear her mind and emotions with the Skills for Awakening®, Ann was able to question her thoughts and explore her real motivations for becoming a topless dancer. She had four young children to feed; her husband had left and did not support them. She intensely disliked her job, but felt she had to put up with it. And as soon as she found other employment she took it.

Through the process of finding her own deepest truth, Ann came to realize that the sole reason she had taken the job was her deep love and commitment to her children. She had acted from love. I was so simple, she couldn’t believe it. But the release of her tension was immediate and—most importantly—it did last. Like shining light into a dark room, instantly her self-rejection, depression and self-hatred were gone.

Instead she recognized it as proof for her deep capacity to love that she had put up with an environment that was so toxic to her. It was not a question of forgiveness. Her new insight was so deep that there was no longer anything she could find that was wrong. Deep peace took the place of self-hate. “I can breathe again,” she said. The change was remarkable and very fast.

Now let’s look at alternative treatments. Had she taken anti-depressants, had she tried to ‘forgive herself’ while still believing that she had done something wrong, what would be the outcome? She might feel better on the surface, but the seeds of her pain and shame would still be in her subconscious—she would still believe that she had done something wrong. And it would not take much to let these thoughts come to the surface again.

There would have been an unconscious pressure in her life, a hidden loss of potential and happiness. This is how most people live, although they are not aware of the causes, only of the effects of repression, an unhappy life.

But the worst that could happen is that she’d be very good at repressing these hidden thoughts of shame and self-hate. Then they might re-emerge at the worst moment possible, just before death.

At the moment of death we no longer can continue suppressing our negative, painful thoughts about ourselves. We come face to face with ourselves and without a history of effective spiritual practice we may feel quite defenseless.

This is the meaning of the ‘final judgment’ that is part of many religions. What is not taught however is that God is not doing the judging. God is unconditional, total love. Whatever we did is already forgiven. The judgment is ours alone! And the hell that may await us is nothing less or more than our own state of mind.

If these thoughts would rise again in Ann’s mind at the moment of her dying, she would once more believe that she was dirty, weak, a prostitute, a victim by her own fault who could not trust herself. Defenselessly she would be confronted by her disgust, self-hate, shame and humiliation. Not a good way to die.

And let’s look further: the wisdom traditions teach us that the last thoughts we have as we die have crucial importance for our rebirth. They are setting the conditions we will experience in the next life.

Although Ann had danced topless for only a few months, the pain her thoughts created was enormous. This pain around the issues of predatory and impure sexuality, victim-hood and prostitution then might set the stage for her next incarnation. Covering up the problem might make it worse.

Ending your karma on the other hand means ending the cycles of pain one by one, once and for all.  This can now be done thoroughly, completely and quickly by anyone with enough motivation for freedom. That is indeed reason for joy.

with love,

Ram Giri

Skills for Awakening

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